1. Field
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for applying pressure to skins of an aircraft during drilling operations when manufacturing the aircraft.
2. Background
Many skin panels are riveted together when manufacturing aircraft, using many rivets. Even two skin panels may be riveted using six thousand rivets or more. The process of riveting generally starts with pressing two skin panels together tightly at the location of a drill site, drilling a hole through both skin panels, and then driving a rivet through the hole. This process is repeated for each rivet.
Pressing the skin panels together tightly is important so that burs, flash, or other inconsistencies are not formed on one or both skin panels during drilling. If such inconsistencies form, then the skin panels are separated, the holes are cleared of the inconsistencies in a process known as de-burring, and then the skin panels are aligned and put back together again for riveting. However, this process wastes time and resources, so it is preferable to avoid the inconsistencies in the first place by tightly pressing the skin panels together during drilling.
To increase the speed of this procedure, pairs of robots work together on opposite sides of the skin panels to press the skin panels together, drill the hole, and then drive the rivet through the hole. However, due to protruding features such as frames and stringers formed on the inside surfaces of the skin panels, space for the robots may be limited in certain areas on the inside surface of the skin panel. Thus, the robot or robots operating on the inside side of the skin panels will have insufficient space to operate properly in these areas.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues. Specifically, one issue is to find a method and apparatus for applying pressure to areas of the inside surface of a skin panel where space is limited so that a robot on the opposite side of the skin panel can drill rivet holes without creating inconsistencies. Another issue is to find a method and apparatus for quickly moving the pressure-applying device from hole location to hole location to increase the speed of the riveting operation.